Bridge Housing looks to revive 16th Street Train Station in West Oakland (photos)

Bridge Housing will hold an event this weekend to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 16th Street Train Station in West Oakland — and, it hopes, rouse interest in redeveloping the historic property.

Bridge owns and controls the station and has tried for years to find a way to revitalize and reuse the property. The main challenge is lining up money to pay for a rehabilitation and determining a viable new use for the roughly 25,000-square-foot building.

“We are honored to celebrate the centennial of the Station, with its rich past and promise for the future,” said Cynthia A. Parker, president and CEO of Bridge. “We’d like to see this event help activate the site and generate interest from the community and supporters of interim and long-term revitalization.”

The station was once the main gateway into the Bay Area for newcomers from other regions of the country. Many East Bay residents can trace back their predecessors to the station. But when passenger rail lost prominence several decades ago, so did the station. It was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and has been vacant for close to 20 years. The building’s intricate beaux-arts facade and interior details have been left to deteriorate and be covered by graffiti despite repeated efforts by volunteers to clean up the site.

In 2008, the City of Oakland tapped developer Phil Tagami to restore the train station. Tagami had previously restored two other historic icons: the Rotunda Building and the Fox Theater. The developer and a team of consultants, including Jim Heilbronner of Architectural Dimensions, analyzed the property and came up with scenarios to reuse it, but no results came of that.

“To put the building back on the map requires more money than it’s worth,” Heilbronner said.

It could work as an administrative or building if the right tenant was willing to occupy it, he said.

Now, the station continues aging at its highly visible spot in West Oakland near several new housing developments built by Bridge, Holliday Development and Pulte Homes.

Bridge is leaning toward turning it into an events center and is looking at how to pay for a restoration. It formed a nonprofit group, Restoration Association for Improving the Landmark or RAILS to help with the reuse efforts.